Beans' Triumph TR7 Blog

Ramblings on three originally Dutch TR7's (a '76 FHC, an 80's DHC and an '81 Sprint powered FHC),
including the work done to them and their (ab)use all over Europe. With some of my other passions thrown in from time to time ...

Saturday, 22 July 2017

While putting the final touches to the DHC's engine
bay already two months ago I also gave the water pump a quick look. And at the
time there were clear traces of coolant from the infamous slot underneath the
water pump. A tissue wedged in the slot would be soaked within 24 hours. But
during a circa 300 kilometre tour over a month ago all was normal. When I set
of in the morning there surely was a leak. With the tissue stuck in there again
being completely soaked in coolant. But there was no significant drop in the
coolant level in the header tank. So I decided to ignore the leak and enjoy the
driving. And when I returned home some 5 hours later the slot in the engine
block was completely dry. Even after the engine had cooled down there still
were no traces of coolant in that area. So it looked like my initial thoughts
on the problem were correct: due to the cars idleness the mating face of the
water pump's seal had corroded slightly, thus causing the leak. And using the
car more often should get rid of the corrosion and the leak.

But when I wanted to take the car for a spin last
Friday evening, a quick inspection before I set of again showed a tiny trace of
coolant from the slot. But more worryingly, the coolant level in the header
tank had dropped considerably. But then I remembered that while changing the
header tank recently, the hose between this tank and the radiator developed a
leak (hose clip slightly loose). And since I hadn't topped up the coolant. So I
did it now! After which it was time to enjoy a lovely evening of topless
driving.

Of course I kept a keen eye on the temperature gauge.
But I needn't have worried. The temperature remained rock steady in its usual position.
And a close inspection of the complete coolant system carried out this
afternoon showed no leaks and nothing wrong with the coolant level.

So hopefully there's no need to replace or recondition
the water pump. But I have made a mental note to use the car on a more regular
base in the time remaining for Club Triumph's 10 Countries Run in September.
But before that event there are two essential items that will be replaced. They
were dropped of at a friend's place for renovating, a few weeks ago because the
ones currently fitted to the car have rather worn spindles. As a result of
which they have become rather difficult to tune and synchronise. So time for a
shiny new set ...

First thought was that one of my two accounts had exceeded its bandwidth again,
so the pictures would reappear in a few days time. But they didn't. And both
accounts were down. So after visiting their site and some searching on the
internet I found out that they had changed their Terms of Service. As a result
of which linking a picture from my Photobucket account to my weblog or a forum
is not permitted anymore. Or in their words:

"Photobucket defines 3rd party hosting as the action of embedding an
image or photo onto another website. For example, using the tag to
embed or display a JPEG image from your Photobucket account on another website
such as a forum, auction listing, blog, etc. is definitively 3rd party hosting"

But if I would be so kind as to pay an
annual fee of $ 399,- for each account, I could continue with their services. Still
wondering what business case PB was dreaming of when they came up with this change
...

But their services have been going downhill very
rapidly over the years. With their site being very slow, and with ever
more annoying and irrelevant pop up adverts. As a result of which linking
pictures to my Blogger account had become quite an ordeal. I have been toying with the idea of changing to another photo host a few times in the past. But the fact that all pictures posted on various forums and on my weblog
would be lost, kept me from doing this.

But now PB has been so kind to make that
decision for me. As all pictures posted on forums are not visible anymore there's
no way back.Remains the time consuming task of restoring my Blogger account
using Google Photos. Currently working back from the last post, and at the time
of typing these words my weblog has been restored back till September 2012 and
one of my two PB accounts has been cancelled. Added bonus of using Google is
that linking pictures to my Blogger account is much easier and quicker. As is
their site!Edit: both my Photobucket accounts are now cancelled.

Sunday, 18 June 2017

Over the
past few weeks days I have been busy with various small jobs on the '76 FHC. To
start with some work on the heater. First of all, the newly coated flaps that
hide inside the heater were fitted with a new foam backing ...

But while
trawling through the various parts of the heater I was reminded of the fact
that the original design of the connection, between the heater matrix and the rest of
the coolant system, is not very impressive. To put it mildly! And the fact that the
rubber seals between matrix and pipes are made from unobtanium these days doesn't
help either ...

So I visited
H&S Speed equipment again. It's the same local firm that provided me with a new alloy radiator for the DHC shortly before
the 10 Countries Run in 2013. And they will eventually supply the new radiator
for this car, but that is one of the last parts that will be needed. But as they
are specialised in all kind of alloy motorsport products they should be able to
help me here. And they could! This means that the heater's matrix will be
fabricated in alloy, using an of the shelf matrix block. But also normal ø16mm
pipe ends, to get rid of the unreliable push connections. Sadly it won't be
ready till the middle of July. The only disadvantage of a small local firm with
a good reputation!

Also resumed
preparing the parts that will (hopefully soon) be sent of for galvanising.
Initial plan here was to have them all treated in an oven to remove oily grime
and other muck before shot blasting and galvanising. But I was advised not to
use this heat (±425°C) treatment for any springs or spring clips as it could
damage the structure of the steel used for these parts. So some parts will need
a different approach here. Not these parts, these are ready to be sent of for
coating ...

But before
that is going ahead, this seemingly small batch of parts needs to be sorted
and prepared ...

And to end
this write up, a major part of the time this weekend was spent in front of the
television, watching Le 24 Heures du Mans. And during those many hours I also
spend some time on the fluid reservoir from one of the brake's master cylinder
from the spares hoard. Not overly difficult but fairly time consuming to get it
cleaned properly ...